Juarez

Tori Amos

dropped off the edge again down in juarez
don't even bat an eye
if the eagle cries the rasta man says
just cause the desert likes young girls flesh and
no angel came

i don't think you even know
what you think you just said
so go on spill your seed
shake your gun to the rasta man's head
and the desert she must be blessed and
no angel came

there's a time to keep it up
a time to keep it in
the indian is told
the cowboy is his friend
you know that i can breathe
even when i cheat
should should've been over for me
no angel came


Lyrics submitted by Novartza

Juarez song meanings
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6 Comments

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  • +2
    General Comment"I read an article about several hundred women in Juárez, Mexico, who had been taken out to the desert and brutally raped and murdered. When they didn't come home, their brothers would go and look for them, and many times they'd find nothing. Sometimes they'd find a hair barrette or a sock or something they knew was their sister's. The authorities haven't really done anything about it...they get into this serial-killer theory. I mean, how much serial can one man indulge in? So as the song started to develop, I really began taking the voice of the desert, singing in that perspective."
    [Tori Amos; A.P. Magazine, Oct99]

    merchantpierceon May 04, 2002   Link
  • +1
    General CommentThe song talks about the HUNDREDS of women in Juarez, Mexico who have been brutally and sadistically murdered in the last 10 years or so.

    Juarez is the bordertown to El Paso, TX, and there are many factories over there that produce electronic parts that get back shipped over here. They pay these girls ridiculously low wages (A few dollars a day or less).

    Who is killing these girls?
    Organized crime. The sad thing is that the government of Mexico is all tangled up in organized crime, and no one can help these girls. These sickos kill them for SPORT. They rape and mutilate their bodies, and bury them in the desert --- in other words -- femicide.

    If you are interested in learning more about this, please google it, or you can contact me at
    chasemice@yahoo.com.
    chasemiceon January 03, 2006   Link
  • 0
    General Comment"No angel came...."

    This lyric haunts me - in a gloriously divine way.
    Poetic_Mystiqueon March 15, 2007   Link
  • 0
    General CommentTori has stated in the past that she wanted this song to sound as if it was being blasting out of a car parked near the border where a murder was taking place.
    abey85on September 19, 2007   Link
  • 0
    General CommentI agree with merchantpierce.
    Ex0duson February 01, 2010   Link
  • -2
    General Commentlike so much of her work this displays how society feels it has been deceived and foolrd by the false promises of religion.
    heir2beulahon May 04, 2002   Link

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